DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — In the battle for Mosul in Iraq, the Islamic State (IS) is losing power and, simultaneously, its Kurdish fighters, as forces spearheaded by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) peshmerga advance.
Like the Kurds of Turkey, in recent years, Kurds in Iraq, Syria and Iran began identifying with IS. After IS turned Iraq into a battlefield, hundreds of Kurds joined. Kurdish young people became interested in IS not only because of the strengthening Islamic movement in the Kurdistan Region, but also because of social and political crises. According to the KRG's Religious Affairs Department, in the past three years more than 500 people ages 11-25 joined IS from Iraqi Kurdistan alone.
